John McLaughlin

#1-1962, 1962

John McLaughlin is seen in the USA as one of the pioneers of Minimal Art and Hard Edge Painting. As a young men he showed an interest in art from China and Japan, and traveled to both countries. During the World War II he worked for the American army’s Sino Intelligence arm in the Far East. He did not start to paint until 1946, when he settled in Dana Point at the age of almost fifty. His thought and work continued to be influenced by his fascination with Asian and Oriental art and culture. The painting #1–1962 is one of a small group of works produced in the early 1960s that can be broadly defined as stripe pictures. Monochrome lines and stripes are distributed harmoniously across the picture surface. The presence of the colored stripes seems to be so calculated in relation to their extent that a rhythm is developed, stimulating the viewer to respond to the artist’s intention to ‘contemplate.’